Recently, studies of regenerative medicine are making progress. For example, in regenerative medicine, artificially cultured cells are used instead of the damaged cells in an affected area for regenerative treatment of the affected area. As a method for culturing such cells, for example, two-dimensional culture is conventionally well known, in which cells are cultured on a Schale, or a petri dish, and the cells formed by the two-dimensional culture are peeled off from the Schale, or the petri dish, after a specific treatment, to be used in an affected area. For example, Patent Document 1 describes a method for generating a chondroid tissue used for treating damaged cartilage in a joint, according to which the method for generating a chondroid tissue is improved.
Furthermore, in order to enhance the therapeutic effect, techniques for three-dimensionally culturing cells that are used for regenerative medicine have been developed. Cultivation methods that use a support as a scaffold upon cultivation have already been devised for a three-dimensional cell cultivation, and, for example, Patent Documents 2 and 3 describe improved supports.
On the other hand, techniques for three-dimensionally culturing cells without using a scaffold have also been developed. For example, Patent Document 4 describes a method for three-dimensionally culturing cells without using a scaffold but by immersing the cells in an excessive amount of a culture fluid.
In a case where a three-dimensional construct resulting from three-dimensional cell cultivation is to be transplanted, a transplantation device intended for handling a three-dimensional cell construct (see Patent Document 5) can be used. This may reduce risks such as bacterial contamination, and thus this technique has been receiving attention.
For transplantation of a three-dimensional construct, in order to adapt a three-dimensional construct, which is to be supplied to a hollow-like-shaped recipient site, to a living body as much as possible, a three-dimensional construct with a size close to the size of the recipient site needs to be inserted into the affected area. When a three-dimensional construct with a size close to the size of the recipient site is to be inserted into the recipient site, however, a clearance between the three-dimensional construct and the recipient site becomes small, which renders insertion of the three-dimensional construct into the recipient site difficult.
On the other hand, if the clearance is made larger, the size of the three-dimensional construct becomes smaller with respect to the size of the recipient site and may possibly fail to bring about a desirable therapeutic effect.
Therefore, in order to deal with a case where a clearance is as small as, for example, 0.2 mm or less between the three-dimensional construct and the recipient site, delivery of the three-dimensional construct to the recipient site by using a thinly-formed cylindrical guide was considered. Such a thin guide, however, is very fine and sensitive, and thus has sometimes been difficult to transfer the three-dimensional construct into such a fine guide.